Rob Higgins – författare

William De Morgan designed and manufactured ceramics from 1870 to 1907, and lifelong friendships with William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones placed him at the heart of the Arts and Crafts revolution. After designing stained glass for William Morris, De Morgan set up his own pottery works. His personal vision was for intense underglaze colours and shimmering lustres to show off his designs of fabulous animals, rich florals, and flowing Persian curves. De Morgan was unquestionably the Arts and Crafts Movement's most important potter. Today his work is part of some of the world's major art collections. This is the only book available that looks at the man and his works.

Portmeirion pottery evolved from a souvenir shop in North Wales into a twenty-first-century global business, thanks to the flair and vision of Susan Williams-Ellis.She captured the aspirations of households all over the world, transforming their kitchens and dining rooms from the 1960s onwards by cleverly blending the contemporary and the traditional. Her 'Botanic Garden' pattern, introduced in 1972, combined antique flower prints with contemporary shapes, and having been in production for the last forty years, it is the firm's most successful creation.The company is currently moving forwards with a new generation of designers; it has a foothold in over fifty countries and has even acquired the Spode and Royal Worcester design portfolios.Will Farmer and Rob Higgins here tell the story of Portmeirion and illustrate dozens of Williams-Ellis's collectable design classics.

From gift shop designs for the holiday village in north Wales, Portmeirion pottery evolved to a global business, thanks in large part to the design flair of Susan Williams-Ellis. She captured the spirit of the kitchens and dining rooms of the 1960s and ''70s with bold new shapes and designs that could be both modern and traditional. ''Botanic Garden'', introduced in 1972, used old flower prints with contemporary shapes and high quality manufacture, and has remained in production for 40 years. In the 21st century the company has moved vigorously forwards with a new generation of designers and a marketplace in over 50 countries.

Rob Higgins shows how taking the aerial route gives unique insights into the history and workings of Britain’s railways. The marvels of Victorian engineering in their construction, their relationships to the canals they replaced as the main arteries of transport, and the communities and industry they spawned along their length can all be seen in detail. This book flies from the Scottish Highlands to Cornwall; from marshalling yards in the centre of the UK to lines hugging cliffs and beaches. All the viaducts on the ‘top’ section of the Settle & Carlisle line are featured, together with many other viaducts and bridges, including the swing bridges in the Norfolk Broads. Lineside industries are seen, from a huge malting complex in East Anglia to our fast-disappearing coal-powered power stations.

William De Morgan was the principal ceramic designer and maker in the Arts and Crafts Movement. Heavily influenced by the art of the Middle East, he was active for nearly thirty years from the 1870s onwards and was never content with an existing technical process if he thought it could be improved. He is famous for his vases and decorative chargers, but it is arguably his tiles – still to be found in homes and museums around Britain and the world – that have made the greatest impact.His tiles portray iconic images of animals, ships and floral designs, blending style influences to produce designs that featured new, stylized interpretations and a whimsical character. He combined a strong design style with rich glaze colours, making blue and green, and a deep orangey red into visual trademarks. There were important commissions from royalty and industry, and his ceramics were marketed to the growing middle classes by William Morris, the founder and leading light of the Arts and Crafts Movement.The tiles of the Arts and Crafts Movement are now highly collectible, and none more so than those made at William De Morgan’s Chelsea, Merton Abbey and Fulham potteries. This highly illustrated book, by acknowledged experts on De Morgan, presents the first study of the tiles to be published in over thirty-five years and features an examination of De Morgan’s lustre glazes using high sensitivity X-ray analysis.

The Arts and Crafts Movement was a reaction to the brutality of working life and the sterility of industrial design in Victorian Britain. Although Arts and Crafts was initially a mediaeval revival, the movement was always about the artist craftsman and the appropriate use of materials, rather than any single design tradition.The movement was inspired and led by William Morris, whose company was founded in 1861 and produced a full range of interior furnishings, including tiles. These were designed by Morris himself, and also by leading artists and architects of the day such as Edward Burne Jones and Philip Webb. The term Arts and Crafts was formalised in the late 1880s, and many designers, artists and craftsmen joined Morris in this new movement, and leading designers including Walter Crane and C. F. A. Voysey produced distinctive and now highly collectable ceramic tiles that were used to decorate the bathrooms and the fireplaces of the wealthy and discerning.This book, with its companion on the work of William de Morgan, is the first complete introduction to British Arts and Crafts tiles from 1860 to 1920.

The Ruskin Pottery operated from around 1898 to 1935. Founded by William Howson Taylor and his father Edward (Superintendent of the Birmingham School of Art) the pottery used simple forms and new glaze technologies in contrast to highly decorated majolica and earthenware that had been popular in the second half of the nineteenth century.The Ruskin Pottery was one of the most important potteries of the Arts and Crafts Movement, and William Howson Taylor was pre-eminent among a group of ‘chemist potters’ at the start of the twentieth century.The most important glaze effect was the reduction of copper and iron oxides during firing, to produce rich red, blue, lavender and green hues. This technique was also called ‘high-fired’ ware and the red glaze, ‘sang de boeuf’. The Chinese had used reduction firing in previous centuries, but it fell out of use and was re-introduced by several European ceramicists during the late nineteenth century. William Howson Taylor became the greatest exponent of the technique, and won major awards at successive International Exhibitions, the first being at St Louis in 1904. This initiated an important export business to the USA, with stores that retailed his wares including Tiffany’s.The pottery closed in 1933 with some pots being fired until final closure in 1935. William Howson Taylor, then ill, burnt all the glaze recipes and died soon after.